This fall, I’ll be releasing a book on how to find truth in a noisy world—using data, not dogma. It’s built on verifiable evidence and comparative analysis, tools that separate fact from fiction. And yes, it calls out the liars: those who twist myths into propaganda to mislead decent people. Make no mistake—that kind of deception isn’t just dishonest; it’s corrosive. Especially now, as mid-term elections near and misinformation pours from every corner.
I find the truth easy enough to spot if I stick to credible data and proper statistical techniques—they show the patterns plain as day. What appalls me is how many people would rather swallow a comfortable lie than face an inconvenient number, especially when it comes to economics.
Let’s be clear: inflation has always been part of the economic landscape, but its current level falls within predictable, normal fluctuations—what statisticians call “common cause variation.” The same holds true for wages, which have consistently outpaced inflation over time. And when you look at net worth—the total value of assets from homes to investments—the pattern holds: steady growth that not only keeps pace but substantially exceeds inflationary pressures.
Over the past ten years, the net worth of the average American household has risen by 78.7%, while wages have climbed 49.7%. During that same period, the cost of goods and services—the standard measure of inflation—increased by 41%, averaging 3.5% per year and 3.3% over recent months. The numbers don’t lie: people have more now, in real terms, than they did a decade ago. That isn’t politics; it’s arithmetic.
Of course, you’ll always find painful statistical outliers—the family whose medical bills erased a lifetime of savings, the town where the factory closed and never reopened—and you’ll hear no shortage of political fearmongering. But the broader economic currents, when you plot them on a chart, show a clear and rising tide. The average household net worth isn’t just keeping pace; it’s pulling ahead. To claim otherwise is to ignore the data spread out plain as day across the table, a story not of collapse, but of accumulation.
Such is truth and life.
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